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Last night we had dinner at Buddy’s Pizza, a Detroit institution for decades and also home to rectangular, “Detroit-style” pizza. Russell and I split a “Detroiter” — pizza loaded with meats and cheeses, with the cheese placed on top to maximize the meaty flavor and avoid charring the pepperoni.

The Detroiter was fantastic. That should come as no surprise, because Buddy’s is frequently identified as one of the very best pizza establishments in the U.S. of A. The crust was perfection itself — light and crunchy, without the doughy gumminess you find in many “deep dish” pizzas — and the cheese on top approach really does enhance the flavor. We also enjoyed a pitcher of Buddy’s beer, a very refreshing lager with hints of citrus that went well with the pizza.

Yesterday we spent some time over at the urban farm, where it’s planting season. So far this year Emily and Russell have planted a number of black currant and raspberry bushes to join the apple trees and strawberry plants that remain from last year, and there’s a new beehive where the bees are busily doing their thing. You could say things are buzzing at the farm.

It was a fine day, clear and not too warm, so we tried to put it to good use. Russell and I spent most of our time shoveling dark, steaming topsoil from a huge mound into the back of his pickup truck, then transferring it onto the rows to be available for even more planting. Thanks to the squatting, lifting, and twisting, I felt like I’d spent a few hard hours at the gym — except the farm effort also helped to produce two more furrows that are ready to go and made a noticeable dent in the topsoil pile.

Last year, the Bandhu Gardens group collectively sold 120 pounds of greens, beans and peppers and 25 pounds of squash to restaurant accounts. They’ve also hosted “pop-up” dinners, including some at local restaurants owned or operated by women, have begun to offer cooking classes, and this year will be selling their produce at a large public farmers market in Detroit.

It’s a classic American immigrant story, of how people come to our country and begin to make their way forward, drawing on their traditional experiences and know-how and applying them to realize opportunities in their new home. Sometimes, though, it helps to have someone who can help to point out the openings and make the potential opportunities into realities. Congratulations to Emily for helping to serving in that important role for some of the new arrivals to our land of immigrants!

One of Russell’s friends and fellow Cranbrook Academy graduates is interested in urban farming. Emily has started a fruit farm in the middle of Detroit on some derelict property, in hopes of bringing fruit and a neighborhood resource to families in the area who don’t have ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s an incredibly cool idea that shows that, once again, one person and a dream can really make a difference in America.

Emily’s efforts are being chronicled in a Detroit Journal video series called Emily Appleseed. You can watch the first episode above. Russell himself makes an appearance in the second video, below, helping to clear the property and following a tractor to turn the soil. He looks like a natural farmer. His grandfather, Bill Kishman, who was a farmer for many years, would be proud. The rest of the series can be found on YouTube.

We came up to Detroit for a quick visit with Russell and last night we took an elevator to the top of the Renaissance Center. From our perch 70 floors up, we were treated to a splendid sunset over the Detroit River.

Let’s face it: many of us like seeing things get blown up. The entire Die Hard movie franchise is, effectively, based on that one crucial assumption about movie audiences.

When it comes to buildings being demolished, we might rationalize that we like to see the engineering wizardry, precision of the placement of the charges and the careful timing that allows the toppling building to fall just so — but really we just like to see things get blown up and collapsing in a huge, billowing cloud of gritty dust.

So it is with the implosion of the abandoned Park Avenue Hotel in Detroit, which was demolished a few days ago to make way for the new Red Wings arena. As the hosts of SCTV’s Farm Film Report would have said, “it blowed up real good!”

Russell decided to stay in Detroit, in part, because he felt a certain energy there, and in part because it is so affordable. After living for a few years in Brooklyn, he knew how ridiculously expensive living the New York City artists’ life had become.

There’s a certain vibe to Detroit, too. The article linked above refers to “ruin porn” — an apt phrase that captures the kind of slack-jawed wonder at the decaying cityscapes that we have noticed in our visits there and reported from time to time on this blog. The dereliction not only makes you ponder how a great city fell so far, but also what can be done to raise it back up again. Part of the allure of Detroit for young artists and other risk-takers is the chance to be part of what could be a great story of urban renaissance. For an artist, that sense of frontier-like opportunity not only is bound to stoke the creative fires, but it also gives the city’s art scene a certain cachet that may well attract attention — and art sales.